Audeze Mobius Preview

Audeze’s Sankar Thiagasamudram was curious if I’d be interested in his company’s latest effort – the $399 USD Mobius – targeted mainly at gamers and multi-channel audio-mastering professionals in the film industry.

The Mobius features a suite of software management tools utilizing Waves Nx DSP technology that allows for an incredible amount of personalized sonic customization. According to Audeze “Waves is … the driving power behind hit records, major motion pictures and popular video games the world over.” Waves has received a Technical Grammy® Award [and] is acclaimed by top professional and prosumer users worldwide.” Waves tech includes Room Emulation which creates a “…sense of space and reflection of the sound within a room.”

Integrated Head Tracking that enables the Mobius to “precisely track even the tiniest head movements 1,000 times a second and feeds the 3D emulation algorithm.”

Sound Localization technology adjusts “as the positioning of your head changes, Mobius identifies and maintains the source of the sound, changing dynamically as you move.”

I responded I’d be happy to try the Audeze Mobius, adding that since my son was an avid gamer and attending a technical film school perhaps I’d let him take them for a spin as well.

Thiagasamudram thought this was a perfect opportunity to hear from someone with a foot in both the worlds Audeze was targeting for the Mobius, so I agreed to ask my son if he’d be interested.

The smile on his face when I asked him was all the answer I needed.

I let Thiagasamudram know that it was a go and he shipped out a pair of early-production Mobius immediately that day.

I let my 19-year-old son and his friend unbox the Mobius on arrival and he’s been using them steadily ever since. I plan on giving them a whirl myself, but this preview and the subsequent review will centre mostly around my son’s experience using the Mobius in the real world of film soundtrack creation and hardcore gaming.

I sat down with him to do a Q&A after he had been using the headphones for about a week.

Mobius Q&A

Rafe Arnott: How does it feel to be a teen headphone-reviewing guinea pig? I keep thinking of you as Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf for some reason, don’t ask me why.

Joss Arnott: “It’s a pretty unique experience I think. I definitely feel like a bit of a black sheep on the bus going to school because my headphones are twice as big as everyone else’s. It’s definitely changed the way I think about and interpret music too. It’s one of those situations where once you’ve taken the step forward, you can’t take that step back to what you were used to before.”

RA: As someone who is new to the whole ‘reviewing headphones,’ gig, how would YOU describe your initial listening impressions of the new Audeze Mobius headphones?

JA: “The first time I used them was to listen to Netflix and it immediately hit me just how how big of a soundscape they reproduced. I felt like I was in a movie theatre, I looked around my room and then looked at my MacBook Pro and it was such a crazy, full sound surrounding me that my brain had trouble processing it at first.”

RA: So far you’ve tried the Mobius with a brand-new custom-built (by you) PC gaming rig, your MacBook Pro and your iPhone. What games have you been using them with, what is the 3D sound quality like and how easy was it get the ‘phones setup and running on the PC?

JA: “I’ve been playing Destiny 2 which is a game well known for its sound design, and it was pretty apparent in the game what was in front of me, what was behind me – I mean, going from standard built-in computer speakers to the Mobus was a huge jump. Connecting them via Bluetooth to my PC was super easy.”

RA: Can you tell us what your PC setup is comprised of?

JA: “It’s my first time building a PC so I did a lot of research and consulted with friends before ordering all the parts to put it together. It’s AMD Ryzen 2700X processor-based, with an ASUS ROG STRIX 1080Ti graphics card, running an MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC motherboard equipped with 16 gigs of DDR 3200 RAM, a two-terabyte storage HDD and an 512 gig SSD for software and the OS. It’s all wrapped in a NZXT H700i chassis.”

RA:You’re a technical film-school student planning on working for film and television and as such deal with a rather large amount of different software programs, in particular some highly-advanced and complex sound-editing software suites. Are you looking forward to having the Mobius to use for university projects?

JA: “Definitely looking forward to it more for school projects as this year we are delving into Pro Tools. As for the commuting, I find I prefer my Beats Solo 3s simply because of the size.”

RA: Lastly, having been exposed to a number of your own headphones over the years with the quality of cans you’ve had steadily improving, how does the Mobius stack up to your previous experiences?

JA:”From an audio-quality standpoint they are the best I’ve ever personally used."

It's quite interesting to see the young lad chose Bluetooth, preferring cordless connectivity for the sake of convenience.

However, this is not the way to get the intended multi-channel Surround Sound experience.

Simply, the listener has to connect the Mobius to a computer via USB.
It appears as a sound device just like any ordinary DAC/AMP, and that's because it has one built in, albeit it's a virtual 7.1 system.
In Windows, the user must configure it as a 7.1 system - instead of a regular stereo device - with just a few clicks.
Inside any video game (or 7.1 movie player or streaming program), the user must set the game audio output as a 7.1 system.